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Prolific Peas

Just when I think that I’ve got this gardening thing figured out, mother nature gives me a big middle finger. Want to ty multiple plantings to stagger the harvest? None of your seeds, planted at the same time, are going to sprout with any consistency anyway. Want to till between the rows? Here’s a couple of weeks of constant downpours. Let’s switch up the weather on you too. How about 90 in June and 70’s in July. My plants are as mixed up as I am, all except for peas.

Peas were planted for the 1st time on April 4th this year, about 8 weeks earlier than I’ve ever planted before. Then again on May 23rd, which is around the time I normally plant. By the time my second planting went in the ground, the first was already up and starting to flower.

Beans were planted for the 1st time somewhere in the middle of the pea plantings. I did not see these sprout for over a month. Panicking I replanted May 28th. I did the same thing with beets. What came up was incredibly spotty. Better throw in some more seed. (If you haven’t noticed I’m not the most patient person.)

This is when mother nature really started messing with me. All of a sudden seed that was put in the ground well over a month ago, and had been written off, started to sprout. What!? Okay, I can deal with this, too much is better than not enough. But where are the rest of the beets, kohlrabi, carrots, and cabbage? One more time I went up and down the rows replanting.

During all this my peas paid no attention to the other dysfunctional plants and did their thing, and did it well. They ignored the potato bugs, the weird weather, and their confused neighbors. Harvest started early and has continued well up until this past week. I’m now waiting for the second plantings flowers and small pods to produce, but they are abundant and the down time is giving me plenty of time for anxiety over everything else.

This anxiety includes the lack of cabbage, parsnips, and kohlrabi. It also stretches to the spotty and very late to sprout beets, cucumbers, and summer squash. These things seem to have a mind of their own this year and they are not sharing their opinions with me nor are they listening to mine. Then there are the nasty little potato bugs that were enlisted to make my life miserable.

Now lets take a look at the corn. I planted 4 fairly long rows over a 4 week period. The 1st row is mostly higher than the rest, except for those few seeds that decided to come up with the 4th row. Then in the forth row I have seed that wanted to sprout much earlier than the rest and came up with the 3rd row. I expect and anticipate some losses and other craziness over the season but come on this year is a bit out of hand.

On the whole the garden is looking good, just a bit spotty and a little stunted in some parts. But man, oh man, those peas. Not only does it look like my second planting will produce well but the first is continuing to vine and is starting to produce more flowers, and with the cooler weather this week they should do very well. They have also talked my beans into producing wonderfully already, even with our misunderstanding and multiple panicked plantings. The first picking, only 20 plants of 100 are producing yet, yielded almost 5 lbs. There should be no lack of Dilly Beans and beans in the freezer this year.

Actually I don’t have much to complain about this year. Every year has had it’s challenges and I do have some good looking plants this year, but everything is a bit wonky and is keeping me on my toes. It’s especially been a great year for peas!